Guido W. Imbens named director of Stanford Data Science

Stanford economist and Nobel laureate Guido W. Imbens will become the next faculty director of Stanford Data Science (SDS), an initiative housed within the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Research that supports research and scholars through data-driven discovery and data science education opportunities across campus. Imbens will begin his term on April 1, succeeding Professor Emmanuel Candès, the Barnum-Simons Chair in Mathematics and Statistics, who has served for the past seven years as inaugural director of SDS.

“Guido is an extraordinary data scientist who has been centrally involved in SDS from its earliest beginnings – most recently, as associate director and leader of the Stanford Causal Center,” said David Studdert, vice provost and dean of research. “He has a long track record of working across disciplinary boundaries, both in his own scholarship and mentoring trainees. Emmanuel’s achievement in bringing SDS from a bold idea to the thriving community it is today is remarkable, and Guido is unquestionably the right person to continue that work.”

After a long-planned decision to return full time to research, Candès will step down from the director role on March 31. He will continue serving as the faculty lead for Marlowe, Stanford’s first GPU-based supercomputer. Candès praised Imbens’ vision and expertise in what SDS needs to continue thriving. “I am thrilled to continue collaborating with Guido, particularly on the expansion of access to computational resources for data-intensive experiments through Marlowe, Stanford’s GPU-Based Computational Instrument, and future systems.”

A pioneer in expanding econometrics to influence policy and best practices

Imbens is the Applied Econometrics Professor and professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy (SIEPR). He specializes in econometrics and, in particular, methods for drawing causal inferences, which measure the cause-and-effect relationships between variables using both experimental and observational data.

In 2021, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering work and methodological contributions to the analysis of causal inferences from observational data. He shared the prize with David Card of the University of California, Berkeley, and his long-term research collaborator Joshua Angrist of MIT, all three of whom share a passion for answering important questions and exploring novel ideas.

Beyond his influential research contributions, Imbens has led the Stanford Causal Science Center for five years – one of the five SDS research centers – which provides a hub for researchers interested in causality and causal inference. The center also offers postdocs and graduate students opportunities to explore the field through academic and other scholarship activities.

“Stanford Data Science has proven to be a critical convener to advance interdisciplinary research ideas across campus,” said Imbens. “I look forward to collaborating with our faculty, scholars, students, and staff to grow our research community, deepen connections across campus, and extend our research into policy arenas. I am grateful for Emmanuel’s collegiality and mentorship as I step into this role leading SDS forward.”

Imbens holds a PhD from Brown University and has held tenured positions at Harvard University, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Statistical Association, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Fueling interdisciplinary research through the power of data science

SDS was created in 2018 to convene an interdisciplinary community of the world’s best data scientists. It comprises scholars and practitioners from diverse fields who rely on accurate, dependable, large data sets and modern data science techniques to advance their work. Through state-of-the-art computational infrastructure, interdisciplinary research centers, expert faculty, and career development programs, SDS is shaping the future of data-driven discovery.

This includes the launch of Marlowe, Stanford’s most advanced GPU-based computing resource, designed to support AI-driven research and complex computational modeling. SDS supports the next generation of scientists, recruiting early-career faculty with expertise in neurolinguistics and brain algorithms, protein structure prediction and evolution using large language models, and statistical methods for data science.

At SDS, research and education thrive in a mutually supportive culture by cross-pollinating ideas, questions, and solutions among experts in engineering, business, the humanities, law, medicine, sustainability, and the natural sciences and social sciences. SDS is developing new methods, revealing fresh insights, and educating leaders and citizens who will harness data science and benefit from its responsible application.

Every year, SDS hosts 30 Stanford doctoral students from across all seven schools as scholars who come together to share and learn from one another while advancing data science solutions for their unique domain challenges. SDS is also home to five specialized research centers focused on advancing scientific discovery through data science methodologies, representing the SDS interdisciplinary reach on campus. 

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